Mexicans demonstrate for missing students, dead teachers

By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY (AA) – Tens of thousands of protesters marched Sunday in Mexico City to mark 21 months since the disappearance of 43 missing students from a teaching college.

The parents of the students who disappeared in September 2014 in Guerrero state, led the march as thousands of demonstrators behind the families chanted slogans such as ‘”Go away Pena Nieto!” and “The reform will crash.”

Protesters also denounced local and federal government’s heavy-handed response to a teacher demonstration the southern state of Oaxaca.

Hundreds of members of the CNTE teacher union, last week protested against measures in an education reform when police opened fire, causing eight deaths.

Authorities were heavily criticized after officials initially said police did not have guns on them but photographs later proved federal police officers shot into the crowd.

“Teachers no longer have tolerance for frustration,” said writer and former teacher Laura Esquivel, during the march Sunday.

Several marches against police aggression were organized during the past week.

Students at major Mexican universities boycotted classes to protest government’s repression and to oppose the increased costs of higher education imposed by federal government.

Marchers were encouraged to demonstrate by Andres Manuel Lopez Obredor, the city’s former mayor and past presidential candidate, who denounced the government’s violent response to the teachers’ protests.

In a video shared on social media, Lopez Obredor -- the head of the left-wing Morena Party -- urged residents to march against what he called the “political mafia” and against the controversial educational reform that, in part, forces teachers to pass assessment tests in order to keep their jobs.